McLaren, not Bridgestone, behind three-stopper

Tuesday 13th May 2008

According to reports, it was McLaren rather than Bridgestone that decreed that Lewis Hamilton should use a three-stop strategy during the Turkish GP.

In the aftermath of Hamilton's powerful drive to second place, it was claimed that his aggressive strategy was the consequence of Bridgestone advising the team that, due to Hamilton's unique driving style and the demands he makes on his front-right tyres when cornering Turn 8 at Istanbul, two-stopping was unsafe. However, the reality may have been subtly different.

It has emerged that Bridgestone instead cautioned the team against running a long middle stint, suggesting that Hamilton could run stints of 20 laps, 18 laps, and 20 laps. After calculating the likely results of such a pattern, the team's strategists then decided that a three-stop strategy would be better - presumably because that would mean the Englishman would only have to run a few handful of laps on soft tyres, a compound he struggled with all weekend.

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